Wrestling

Weekly Wrestling Release

Feb 22, 2011

Bulls Rout Northern Illinois on Senior Day

The Buffalo wrestling team ended its regular season on a high note Sunday afternoon, beating Mid American Conference rival Northern Illinois, 22-9. It was also the second annual Takedown Cancer fundraiser, and the wrestling program helped raise over $28,000 for the Jeff Parker Foundation and Carly's Club of Western New York.

The match began with senior Brian Sheehan wrestling for the first time at 197 pounds. He excelled defensively and used a first-period takedown to win the match 3-2 over Mike Lukowski. The Huskies then took the next two matches before the Bulls reeled off six straight wins.

Kevin Smith won his team leading 31st match of the year, dominating Kevin Fanta at 133 pounds with two takedowns, an escape and over a minute of riding time. The first takedown was Smith's 100th career takedown, making him just the tenth wrestler in Buffalo program history to reach 100 takedowns in a career.

Making his return to the 141-pound division, sophomoreAndrew Schutt earned an important win over Tristan DeShazer. After missing over a month of action due to injury, Schutt scored a third-period escape and takedown after trailing through two periods, sealing a comeback and a 6-4 win. The decision gave Buffalo a 9-6 lead in the dual, a lead it would never relinquish.

Desi Green finished the MAC season undefeated with a 4-0 shutout of Vince Castillo. Green went up 3-0 after two periods, and rode out his opponent for the entire third period to earn a riding time point.

In the most critical match of the night, sophomore Mark Lewandowski won an 8-6 sudden victory overtime match with Bryan Deutsch, a two-time national qualifier who came in to the match ranked 21 in the country at 157 pounds.

Buffalo earned its only bonus points of the night at 165 pounds. John-Martin Cannon rode his recent hot streak with another offensive outburst, recording seven takedowns in a 15-6 major decision over Matt Mougin. The junior now sits in sole possession of fifth place for career takedowns as he currently has 116.

In the 174 pound match, Buffalo earned its final win of the afternoon, as Ron Majerus won 9-6 over Caleb Busson. The win was Majerus' first MAC win of the season and just the second of his career. He made two takedowns in the first period and then a single takedown in the second and third periods for one of his better offensive outings of the season.

Buffalo just missed a shutout of the Huskies, as three overtime matches went in favor of Northern Illinois, at 125, 184 and heavyweight. It was the final home meet for three UB seniors - John Crisafulli, Brian Sheehan and Jimmy Hamel. The Bulls end the regular season with a 9-8 record, 2-3 in the MAC. The team will take a week to prepare for the MAC championship, to be hosted by Northern Illinois this season.

Up Next

The Bulls will have almost two weeks off now to prepare for the Mid American Conference championship tournament, to be held March 5 and 6. Final conference rankings will be released in the next week along with the bracket for the championship tournament.

By the Numbers

101 - Kevin Smith took down his opponent twice on Sunday, moving him to 101 takedowns in his career. He is only the tenth wrestler in program history to reach 100 career takedowns.

116 - With a match-high seven takedowns against Northern Illinois, John-Martin Cannon claimed sole possession of fifth place on the program's career takedown list, with 116.

50 - After recording two escapes against Northern Illinois, Brett Correll moved in to the program's career record list for escapes.

28,000 - Amount of money raised for the Jeff Parker Foundation and Carly's Club of Western New York.

31 - Season wins for Kevin Smith, a personal best and the most wins by any wrestler in a single season since Desi Green in 2008-09.